UDMA -- worth it?

rookieshooter

I have a D700 and fast CF. It's usually not a problem shooting in burst but the burst rate in JPEG is only about 10 shots or so, when I am just holding down the shutter. If I'm just shooting in short burst I never have to wait for the camera to be ready.

Does UDMA alleviate this? I would like to be able to capture 20 or so shots of something as it passes in front of me just to be sure

If you have any experience going to UDMA, I would love to hear your thoughts.

ziggy53

Nikon D700 write speeds:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9550

ziggy53

Most modern dSLRs have a write cache built into the camera that loads first and then the camera writes the cache out to the memory card. While card write speeds affect the write out speeds they typically have little effect on continuous shooting. In the case of the Nikon D700 the continuous rate seems less than the write out speed for a very fast card and DPReview has tested shooting up to 100 JPG images without interruption.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond700/page13.asp

You might check to make sure that Custom Settings Menu, d5 is set to 100 for deepest continuous shooting. If it is set to 100 I would suggest a faster card.

AlbertZeroK

I use this card "Transcend UDMA 300X 16GB" in my Canon 50D which is a UMDA card. It's fast, so fast that when set on the largest JPEG size, I can hold down the shutter and shoot continously until the card fills up or the camera battery dies. Now Raw shooting is another issue, when I do RAW+JPEG I can shoot like 10 or 12 shoots then I have to pause.

For me, I shoot alot of kids (we are foster parents and do a fair amount of volunteering) and I love continous shooting (set up shot, start shooting, do something stupid to get them to smile - works every time!)

I also have some older cards, like a 1G IBM Microdrive and some older 2G and 4G cards (some are even Sandisk Extreme II / Extreme III) and there is no comparison in my camera.

Oh, same thing goes for my 30D and my D90 - get fast cards, it's REALLY worth it. Oh yeah, their expensive too! 3 16G cards cost me over $400!

Last thing, UDMA cards will not read in all computers, also I would recomend gettin the Lexar Professional UDMA Dual-Slot Card Reader. My other card readers are slow in comparison and this works great on both my Transcend CF cards and my Sandisk Ultra III SDHC cards. Oh and take note, my Transcend cards don't work in the Walmart picture kiosks - so if you need to print something out quickly, that might be an issue.

rookieshooter

Thanks Ziggy. The first link is just too much information, in that it's impossible to tell what is being compared to what, but that is Rob's fault IMO.

As for your second post, the manual says 100 JPEGs is the buffer, but with the grip and I'm holding it down it's about 10-13 shots, max. I can make a video showing this, and maybe I will.

For a real world example: I was at an airshow this weekend (check out the journeys forum) and as the planes approached I started firing and by the time they were in front of me the camera would pause and I'd have to wait.

This is not a huge deal because I don't care once they have gone past me, but it still would be nice to be able to shoot more shots in a row and not have to worry about waiting for the CF card to ready itself.

ziggy53

rookieshooter wrote:

... The first link is just too much information, in that it's impossible to tell what is being compared to what, but that is Rob's fault IMO.

...

What the first link shows is that you cannot use card manufacturer's speed ratings to determine actual transfer speeds. It's also not possible to just use any single identifier, like a particular manufacturer or UDMA, to determine relative transfer speeds.

If you are looking for a fast card just start at the top and work your way down the list until your needs and budget match.

rookieshooter wrote:

... As for your second post, the manual says 100 JPEGs is the buffer, but with the grip and I'm holding it down it's about 10-13 shots, max. I can make a video showing this, and maybe I will.

For a real world example: I was at an airshow this weekend (check out the journeys forum) and as the planes approached I started firing and by the time they were in front of me the camera would pause and I'd have to wait.

This is not a huge deal because I don't care once they have gone past me, but it still would be nice to be able to shoot more shots in a row and not have to worry about waiting for the CF card to ready itself.

You need to check your camera's custom settings to make sure that menu "d", number 5 is set at "100", the maximum allowed. If that is the setting and if you are shooting JPGs, then there is something else going on.

rookieshooter

Thank you Ziggy. I checked and my camera is set to 100 maximum continuous release but believe me, if I just hold down the shutter it does not shoot that many shots. I'll investigate further.

Scott_Quier

ziggy53 wrote:

Most modern dSLRs have a write cache built into the camera that loads first and then the camera writes the cache out to the memory card. While card write speeds affect the write out speeds they typically have little effect on continuous shooting. In the case of the Nikon D700 the continuous rate seems less than the write out speed for a very fast card and DPReview has tested shooting up to 100 JPG images without interruption.

"Typically" may be the operative word here. If one is shooting JPG only, the write speed of the card, taken in combination with a decently sized buffer may be enough to cover most typical and many non-typical situations.

However, if one is shooting RAW, "typical" becomes a little more tightly defined. Taking a case in point, the Canon 50D has a buffer sufficient to hold approximately 16 RAW images. I have, in production work (a wedding reception, actually) and using a non- UDMA card over-loaded the buffer and had to wait for it to partially clear before I could take another shot - quite frustrating. Using a UDMA card, I've not run into this situation in a production setting though I have pushed it when testing and found that I can fire off some 22 or 23 shots before I get stopped by a full buffer. It's the speed at which the camera is able to write buffer contents to the card, and thus free up buffer space, that controls here. Because the card was able to take the data at a faster rate, the buffer was unloading as it was being written to and thus took longer to fill. An analogy - filling up a bucket with a small hole (card without UDMA) takes less time than does filling up a bucket with a larger hole (card with UDMA).

So, is the D700 able to write at speeds faster then non-UDMA cards can accept data? If so, then I would say that the UDMA cards may worth the extra $$ - depending on shooting style and shooting/speed needs. If you never push the fps, then the UDMA card may not be required.

Also, if it's important to you, the UDMA cards unload to the computer faster than non-UDMA cards; especially if one uses an appropriately quick card reader rather than the USB port of the camera.

Manfr3d

UDMA is technicaly not needed unless you shoot sports or long bursts where
your buffer gets filled quickly. But it is very nice to have in your cardreader
because it will half the time it takes to download your pics (if you use the
proper cards).

I use a SanDisk Extrememate UDMA FW Cardreader with Extreme III and IV
cards. Can you say "wooooshhhh"?